In the good old days, before any one had falsified the ledger of the public accounts, or the standard of measure. In Dante’s time a certain Messer Niccola tore out a leaf from the public records, to conceal some villany of his; and a certain Messer Durante, a customhouse officer, diminished the salt-measure by one stave. This is again alluded to, Paradiso XVI 105. ↩

Matthew 5:3:⁠—

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”